A Preliminary Study On The Disputes Of Shan - Sui 's Demarcation In The Republic Of China

From time immemorial, the area connected Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia has been a very important part in North area of China. It is the conjunction area of agriculture and nomadism. Its unique geographical advantage and natural environment makes it an important area, for which the northern nomadic nationality constantly contested with farming nationalities from central plains. This article selects the area connected Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia as the study area, investigates the relationship between the environment, immigration and land use, from the time of in the Republic of China, when the boundary between Shaanxi and Suiyuan was under dispute.The first chapter mainly states thehistorical geography background of the dispute between Shaanxi and Suiyuan in the Republic of China, which introduces the conditions of the area connected Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia both in natural geographical environment and in humanistic geographic environment.The area is a warm semi-arid agricultural region, where Mongolians and Han Chinese live together, and agriculture and husbandry both boom in this region. In this chapter, the paper focuses on introducing the condition of agriculture and nomadism in this area since the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China:in the previous middle period of Qing dynasty, people gradually started to reclaim land; from the time of "Daigu" land reclamation policy, the land reclamation was entitled only to the government, the policy of which lasted all the way to the time of Republic of China. When the land in Mongolia began to be reclaimed, the number of Han Chinese living in Mongolia began to increase continuously and the conflicts over the lands therefore intensified.The second chapter analyses the disputes over the boundary between Shaanxi and Suiyuan in the time of Republic of China. The paper elaborates on the direct cause to divide Shaanxi and Suiyuan and on the two major disturbances, including the attitudes and major concerns of different social classes on both sides; the interests and demands of local government, Mongolian nobles, local gentry, nobility and civilians; the outcome of the dispute and also its effects on the boundary line between Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia.The third chapter expounds the essence of the dispute. In general, the fight over interests were mainly manifested in the following aspects:firstly over the lands, which was the first attempt of Cai Chengxun; secondly over commercial interests, such as the competition over the major commercial cities like Hala Zhai, Shaliang, Gucheng, Ning Tiaoliang, etc.; thirdly over people, which in essence was to get control of lands as the ownership of people and land would generate huge effects on regional finance and political system; and lastly over the land, the origin of all the disputes was actually the dispute over the lands.The fourth chapter discusses the fundamental reason of the dispute. Firstly, the process which Han Chinese entered into the Mogolia region to reclaim was introduced, the number of Han Chinese entering into Mongolia was increasing. Secondly, with the number of Han Chinese increasing, a part of Han Chinese resided in Mogolia region, become citizens in the true sense from immigrants. A lot of social problems such as dispute cases, fighting cases was caused by the fact that Han Chinese entered into Mongolia which was the prelude of large-scale outbreak Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia border dispute in the Republic of China. Thirdly, with Han Chinese entering deeply into the Mogolia region from South to North, pasture area was gradually reduced, the disputes between farmers and herdsman appear continuously. The Qing Dynasty had to delimit the HuoPanDi again and again. The demarcation for the HuoPanDi was the historical basis of Shaanxi and Suiyuan demarcation.Fourthly, during the Qing Dynasty, the management was quite confused in the boundary between Shaanxi and Suiyuan. During the republic of China, government set up SuiYuan special area which was a peer administrative region with Shaanxi Province in order to strength the management. At this time the division of the border had to put on the agenda. Finally, from the result of the dispute, the possession of the Mogolia area was transfered in secret that set stage for regional administrative property dispute.